UESP Main Page Arena Daggerfall Battlespire Redguard Morrowind

Features

• Type: 1st Person RPG, 320x200 VGA
• Developer: Bethesda Softworks
• Released: 1993
• A virtually limitless outdoor area to explore (8 million square kilometers).
• Choose from 18 character classes and 8 races.
• Over 2500 types of magical items.
• Over 400 towns, cities, and dungeons to visit and explore.
• A simple, paper-doll type, inventory system.
• Excellent lighting system (for its time), reflecting puddles in cities!

Requirements

Miniumum
• MS-DOS v5.0+
• 386/25MHz computer
• 4MB RAM (2MB EMS)
• 25MB hard drive space
• VGA graphics card
• Mouse
• Supports Aria, Ensonic, Roland, Soundblaster, and Ultrasound sound cards.

Recommended
• 486/33MHz computer
• 8MB RAM

Review

Pros
1. Freedom: This game, like it's sequel, Daggerfall, has an almost infinite degree of freedom to do what you wish. The main quest, while linear, can be done at your leisure, allowing you to explore the endless wilderness and countless dungeons and towns.
2. Character System: The levelling system is a simple experience point type but is very well done, giving the right balance between level ups and rewards. The paper-doll inventory system is well done although your items appear only as text.
3. Magic: An extensive magical system is in the game, allowing you to create a large number of custom spells once you become powerful enough.
4. Visual Effects: In its time, the game's graphics were second to none. Although rather simple by today's standard's, they are still very pleasing. Light sourcing is well done outside and in dungeons as are weather effects such as snow, rain, and fog. This is the only game that I know of that has trully reflecting puddles in towns (impressive!).
5. Minor Features: This game is a good example, I feel, where the minor details help the game emmensely. The automap feature is very well done (one of the better ones in all the games I've played). Cities and towns have enough unique features to seperate them from one another, etc... I could go on for a while with all the little things which make playing the game all the more fun.
6. Overall: The game is put together very well in all aspects. With the latest patch you shouldn't have any crashes (unlike with Daggerfall). I remember the first time I heard the demon lord's scream (a very powerful monster) in a dungeon I totally freaked and ran in the other direction...one of the few games that has been able to create that sort of immersiveness.

Cons
1. Reptitivness: The game does get boring at times, get a quest, rample through a dungeon, claim the reward etc... but the odd artifact quests and the main quest do a good job of breaking up this monotony (even though they themselves involve endless dungeon hacking). If you don't like dungeon hacking, you might want to avoid the game.
2. Low Resolution: With today's game reaching 1024x800 and higher, the paltry 320x200 resolution might seem unplayable to some. The game's textures and sprites are also cartoony, but don't take out much from the game's playability.

Screenshots

A Typical Dungeon	The Automap	An Outdoor View

Links

• Bethesda - Official site, but don't except much on the game
• The UESP: Arena - Has just about everything which is available for the game.
• Patch v1.06 - 250 kb - The latest patch for the game. Unzip into the game directory.

Display this document for printing (some pages may not display properly).